Anytime you get excited about a new hobby, it’s only natural to jump into it headfirst. However, with a hobby like collecting baseball cards, jumping in too fast can lead to some costly mistakes. I’ve made a ton of such mistakes throughout my collecting journey. I’m sure I’ll make more in the future, but it’s important to try and keep them to a minimum.
When I talk about jumping in too fast, I am referring to spending money before you really understand the value of what you are buying. Now obviously if you’re spending your money on a product, it means that you are happy with the value you are getting in return. So in the short term, you are probably going to be happy with your purchase. In the long-term however, it could be a different story. The reality is that most T206 collectors don’t hang onto their cards forever. People sell for a number of different reasons. Some decide the T206 set just isn’t for them. Others realize after a while that they prefer higher (or lower) eye appeal cards, so they sell the cards they bought initially in order to buy cards that fit their new collecting vision. Some collectors realize they enjoy both buying and selling and end up turning over their collections multiple times. If, in the future, you find yourself selling the T206s that you bought when you first got into the hobby, you’ll be a lot happier if you paid fair prices for them than if you overpaid.
Luckily, there is a wealth of information available at your fingertips. When I began collecting T206s in 2010, I started by joining net54baseball.com. I spent dozens of hours poring over every T206 thread I could find, and combing through eBay listings. It’s pretty crazy to say this, but when I first began buying T206s, I don’t think I made a single ill-advised purchase. I spent a lot a time reading, researching, and learning before I spent any money on T206s, but it wasn’t because I have superhuman amounts of willpower. Looking back, the reason I held off on buying any cards until I had a good idea of the market was simple. When I started researching the set, I was merely interested in it. I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to collect it or not. I didn’t have my eye on a certain card I “had to have” or a wad of money burning a hole in my pocket. That approach served me well, but I haven’t been able to replicate it with other sets that I have become enamored with over the ensuing years.
I lost money on the first handful of T205s, T207s, E135s, M101-4/5s, and Cracker Jacks that I bought. Like most T206 collectors who end up collecting backs, I started out just collecting fronts. The first back I really fell in love with was Brown Hindu. I decided I wanted to have a stack of Hall of Famers with Brown Hindu backs. I sold off my partial lower grade T206 set (with common backs), and the first cards I bought with the money were lower grade copies of Willis Portrait, both Clarke poses, Waddell Portrait, and Flick with Hindu backs. The only one I still own is the Flick, and I lost money on each of the other four when I went to sell them. I don’t really regret those buying decisions because I learned from each of them. However, I feel a lot smarter about the way I began my T206 collection than the way I jumped in too fast with my T206 back collecting and my forays into other pre-war sets.
Luckily, finding information and sales data is easier now than ever. Because the T206 set is so widely collected, and the cards are readily available, eBay is the go-to place for sales data. Thousands of T206s sell on eBay each month. Using the “Sold Items” tab, you can search the last three months of completed sales on eBay. When you are collecting T206s based on the player on the front, rather than worrying about backs, eBay’s sold items archive is often all you need to learn about current market values. When you are just starting out, I don’t think you need any other resources. At a certain point, you may find it helpful to check out vintagecardprices.com, or “VCP”. VCP is a pay site which offers access to a large archive of sales data. Subscriptions are sold either by the year ($180), the month ($18), or the day ($4). At $4, the 24 hour pass is a nice tool for a beginning collector. I used it a handful of times when I was first learning about the T206 market. I would keep a list of cards I wanted to look up. When I had a day where I could devote a few hours to price research, I would pay the $4 and look up tons of cards and take notes.
Paying a little too much here and there is pretty much inevitable when you first begin collecting T206s (or anything, really). However, a little patience and preparation will go a long way toward keeping those mistakes to a minimum. When those inevitable mistakes happen, try not to be too hard on yourself. If you keep at it, and refine your knowledge, your understanding of the T206 marketplace will pay dividends. Over time, the undervalued cards you find will outweigh the ones that you overspent on in the beginning of your collecting journey.
